Hindutva’s Desperate Attempt to Use Bhagat Singh Against Love
BY SAURAV KUMAR
ON 14/02/2018
Love
always elevates the character of man. It never lowers him, wrote the
young revolutionary in a letter to his comrade in 1929.
Shaheed Bhagat Singh
Come
Valentine’s Day, and the Hindutva brigade – comprising organisations
such as the Bajrang Dal, Hindu Vahini Sena, Shiv Sena etc – start
gearing up to unleash violence on young couples. In the past few years,
hooliganism has marked this day in every big city and town. The main
reason for this is the Hindutva brigade’s view that Valentine’s Day is
against “our culture and tradition”. However, this vicious campaign is
not limited to ‘tradition’. Fresh efforts are being made by these
organisations to stop Valentine’s Day celebrations by conducting an
orchestrated propaganda linking Valentine’s Day with revolutionary
freedom fighter Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom day.
It
is well known that when it comes to twisting facts, appropriating icons
of India’s freedom movement, such as Bhagat Singh, and even circulating
fake news on social media, none can beat the Hindutva groups. For,
playing around with historical dates and their significance to whip up
hatred mainly works to the advantage of the divisive Hindutva agenda.
Take
the case of Valentine’s Day, which falls on February 14. On the eve of
Valentine’s Day in 2011, some people spread a rumour that the
revolutionary freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were
hanged by the British government on February 14.
The
zealots went on to spread this misinformation through Wikipedia. As The
Hindu reported , “The Wikipedia page on Bhagat Singh underwent many
editing changes on February 13 and 14, Valentine’s Day.” The date of his
hanging had been changed from March 23, 1931, to February 14, 1931. On
Twitter, this misinformation spread like a fire.
The
attempts to change history did not end there. The Shiv Sena (Punjab)
demanded the day be marked as a ‘Black Day’ because freedom fighter
Bhagat Singh was hanged on this day.
Last year,
this propaganda reached a crescendo when an education officer in Pune
passed an order in a school, asking it to observe February 14 as the
martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh and his comrades. The Solapur zilla
parishad education officer (primary) Tanaji Ghadge also issued a letter
to all block education and administrative officers, asking them to
organise a programme in all schools under their jurisdiction on February
14, paying tribute to the martyrs of the freedom struggle, Bhagat
Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru , stating that this was because they were
hanged on this day.
The self-proclaimed
nationalists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bajrang Dal and
other Hindutva groups (followers of Veer Savarkar and M.S. Golwalkar),
are in a state of pain as they don’t have their own icon who gave up his
or her life or made sacrifices during the freedom movement. What lies
behind their zeal to oppose ‘westernised love’ by distorting history is
an attempt to plug their own ideological and political deficit. This is
why they have devised a new game plan since the past decade — to
misinform people and instigate in them hatred against open-minded youth.
In this process, the Hindutva forces are distorting history to hijack
the heroes of the freedom struggle, particularly, young revolutionaries
like Bhagat Singh, by portraying them as agents of Hindu Rashtra.
The
whole world knows that the death warrant for Bhagat Singh was issued on
October 7, 1930, and he was hanged on March 23, 1931.
There is, of course, a wider irony in the Hindutva groups’ disinformation campaign.
In a letter to Sukhdev, dated April 5, 1929, Bhagat Singh wrote, “Love elevates the character of an individual”.
“You
asked me one thing, whether love ever proved helpful to any man. Yes, I
answer that question today. To Mazzini it was. You must have read that
after the utter failure and crushing defeat of his first rising he could
not bear the misery and haunting ideas of his dead comrades. He would
have gone mad or committed suicide but for one letter of a girl he
loved. He would become as strong as any one, nay stronger than all…
“As
regards the moral status of love I may say that it in itself is nothing
but passion, not an animal passion, but a human one – and very sweet
too. Love in itself can never be an animal passion. Love always elevates
the character of man. It never lowers him, provided love be love.”
But,
the insane hatred against Valentine’s Day being whipped up by Hindu
fundamentalists is spreading misinformation among the people with regard
to the country’s proud legacy of sacrifice for love. Bhagat Singh and
his comrades logically advocated the idea of an independent India which
was to be inclusive in nature, with strong bonds of commonality and
rejection of religion in matters related to the state. In simple terms,
they were against the formation of any Hindu rashtra or an Islamic
state.
The distortion of history and facts by
religious zealots, therefore, reposes a greater responsibility on us to
keep alive the ideals for which these revolutionaries lived and died.
